Blogging

I never quite imagined myself as a blogger. But I must confess I am enjoying it. I have found it very cathartic to write about the ongoing chaos in our home. I am sure many people, unfortunately, can relate to the stress imposed by unforeseen home renovations. Our kitchen smells like a bonfire pit and has now been moved to our living room, our clothes and linens are at a dry cleaners and the house is kind of upside down. Yet I have still managed to sort of cook meals and have family dinners (except for tonight when we did pizza at a friend's house). Our goal is to try to normalize our lives as much as possible for the kid's sake. I don't know about your kids but ours thrive on routine. They are not suited to alot of upheaval. They like being home and living a fairly quiet life. By the end of our weekend at a hotel they were begging to go home.

I love our home. It suits us and our lifestyle. Upheaval and all there is no place I prefer to spend time (except maybe the occasional beach in the winter) than here at home. I love hibernating here in the winter. My parents will babysit on a weekend during the winter and then ask us why we did not go out. The main reason is we are homebodies.

I have to confess it was not always this way. We always loved our house but before we had Tina reorganize us it wasn't always relaxing to be here. I would want to be out because the clutter overwhelmed me. I remember her telling me that once we got organized our house would be more peaceful and you know what she was right. Christmas holiday 2008-09 was the very first time I remember spending lots of time at home without loking around and thinking about how much there was to do, to clean, and to organize. It was truly a relaxing staycation because everything had a home and all the piles were purged.

So even though chaos is reigning supreme right now, I know calm and peace will return. Sigh, I can't wait.

Day 3 of chaos & My Nesting Solution

Day 3 of settling back into a house thrown into chaos:

Late in the day yesterday & still no call from the insurance company (6 days post fire), the disaster crew came and installed plastic zip up doors to get in and out of my kitchen. They did this to keep the bonfire smell restricted to the kitchen. My kitchen is now a bubble. When I am in it I cannot hear anything outside (the fact that I am partially deaf does not help). However it is an excellent escape hatch when everyone is driving me crazy. I was going to start cooking dinner after carpool when I realized that the smell was so overpowering in the kitchen that I could not breathe. So I began moving my major cooking appliances : microwave and brand spanking new ginormous toaster oven into the dining room. Dinner had been marinating and I was going to make it NO MATTER WHAT! So I plug in the toaster and microwave and start moving between the biohazardous bubble of a kitchen and the dining room. Zip, unzip, zip, unzip, crouch, crouch, crouch. I come to the realization that my back is too old for this nonsense. I cannot cook on the floor and keep darting in & out. Thankfully my devoted and handy husband showed up as I was about to explode. We ate dinner (which was yummy considering the obstacles) and then he brought up a table for me.

My husband likes to tease me about how I like to nest. Whenever we travel and we get to a hotel I need to unpack, organize our stuff and get settled. He has coined the term "nesting" for this need of mine to turn each place into my home. After dinner I nested - BIG TIME. He set up the table and we put my major appliances including my coffeemaker (which I don't know about you but is key to me!)on the table. Then I sorted my dishes nearby, cutlery, glassware, and some pencils and erasers for homework. My house is still a mess but at least I feel nested. Now if only I could stop losing patience when my kids do cartwheels in the living room and use the sofa as a trampoline. But that is a topic for another day!

So however you need to cope, whether it is nesting or asking for help, find your solution that works for you. After all everyone should focus on what they do best and let others take care of the rest.

My Concierge Plus Blogs!

Hi everyone,
The other Saturday morning my bberry buzzed and someone called asking if Tina, our home organizer, was free to work that weekend. Well within half an hour they had set an appointment for the next dday to begin decluttering! She called on Monday to rave about 1) My Concierge Plus' quick response time 2) Tina's efficiency and willingness to go the extra mile. Well, that to me was a winning combination. The client then remarked how life altering the experience was. She said why don't people give this as a gift. How many scented candles, picture frames, or coffee mugs does a person need? I of course agree. I gave myself and my family the gift of organization last fall. It has so drastically changed our house and our lives for the better. We can find things. We enjoy spending time in our home because it is not chaos. So the next time you need a gift for someone who has everything, someone whose life is busy with work and/or family give them something useful give them the gift of home organization with Tina from My Concierge Plus. www.myconciergeplus.com